Day 5: this one’s a humdinger! Hahahaha

 Ok.  

Here goes my opener: I have good news and bad news.  

The good news is I got a new outfit in Cannes. :)

The bad news is that I had to do this to get it (you’ll want the sound up, at least on the third, multiple watching):

I have no words.  Or not enough.  It is all very meta, there on video, but it was maybe even funnier in person — I could hear them laughing at me!!! 😂😂😂 

We will push on, because I clearly could get caught in this rabbit hole for a long time, but KG said it was NOT as good as the dunking in the river in Nova Scotia in June as I didn’t flail as much today and I went all in there. I will say this: the Meditteranean in December is warmer than Prince Edward Bay in June. 😁

Other than that, it was a good day.

Pretty much. 

There was an interesting discussion at breakfast about deciding what to do — KG, aka IAFTR, seemed unhappy with the change of plan today — we didn’t go to Monaco.  I made an exec decision based on the light display in Monaco Friday. So I might deserve what I got. 

Also, we violated, again, the “rule” from the Business Insider writer that said “plan meals ahead, because you waste a lot of time if you don’t.”  Time wasting today included going for dinner on tbe beach in Cannes only to told the kitchen was closed. 😃  (I will not mention that I took a barrel roll walking out to the table [there was small step I didn’t see], which was AFTER the sea dip 😡😢 there are no pictures of video)

Then we tried to go back to Mougins (10 miles but half an hour plus), only to find out THEIR kitchen wasn’t serving yet — a real betwixt and between. 😡

But back to what we did. 

We started by running into Antibes (half an hour southeast).

On the way we were amazed to see…snow capped mountains.  To the east.  And we were within sight of the sea!!!  Wow.  Here’s a pic:

parking in a marina with lots of yachts (yes, really) and walking a ways uphill to the Musee Picass.  Pablo lived here for a year in 1946 and they made the place into a museum and he donated, then his significant other gave a bunch of stuff to them, so they have quite a collection.  Here’s my favorite (or it was till later today 😢), called Joie de Vivre

Let me say this about Pablo’s Antibes period: he sure bought into the environment.  Not only was he wearing French navy striped shirts, but his art is full of urchins, fish, seafood, and a lot of classical stuff inspired the signs said by the fact Antibes was a Roman fortress.  [the pretensiousness of the write-ups is beyond mockable]

(I think this one was the one called Tres Oursins [urchins[)

After walking around the narrow, cobbly streets of Antibe (not without incident, but I’m not to tell 🤷),

we headed to Cannes.  

BTW, driving around here is hard work.  Not quite Cornwall in May hard work, but still…tight streets, traffic (we asked a lot what would be like in high season) and lots of roundabouts with little spurs that confuse you on the directions.

We parked right below the film “palace” and found a charging station (the Lexus is an EV/HV that came full of gas but uncharged!  explain that, please?) and actually charged the car (when we did the math on the euros per km, we decided to not bother and stick with gas).  

There was ANOTHER Christmas market, and purchases were made (a bottle of vanilla rhum [rum], which everyone but me tasted, but *I* bought it — you explain that!), several rather clever ones.  the discussion about the rum will be good for days: how do we get it home? Aren’t we drinking it? Can we drink that much vanilla rum before Sunday? Can we ship it with the other stuff (remember the overweight suitcases)?  LOL.  #firstworldproblems. 

At the end of the promenade, we came to this quay, and they were taking pictures 

and I got ambitious and…you have the video.  😂😂😂

And to dinner, a quick stop at the local grocery store, and back to recuperate. 

If you are wondering: yes, I got pretty wet.  I did buy a new t-shirt and pullover around the corner from where I fell in. :). The staff person knew little English, so the whole thing was hard to convey. :). But she let me change in their “dressing room” (a curtain in the middle of the room) and so my wet, sandy top (3 layers) were carried home.  I wore the pants, despite K’s attempt at getting me others.  My phone survived —- I didn’t get soaked.  

And, yes, K and EH still laugh when they watch the video. Still.  Twelve times later.  EH, who took the video, turned it off quickly, saying “I didn’t think it was a good look for us to be laughing uproariously at my father’s predicament.”  Uh huh. 

I’m not committing to anything tomorrow.  Given my record on falling in water is good this year, I can’t guarantee more (though I can’t really afford a new outfit per day; retiree on a fixed income)…but I hope there’ll be no such thing for awhile.  Fingers crossed.

Au revoir.  Adieu. 

And today’s money shot —